Gemini from Alien Labs via Catalyst Santa Ana on 3/11/2022. THC tested out to 27.59%. Alien Labs is now going for $62 out the door at Catalyst shops, if you go on Tuesdays you can get 15% off of any flower, bringing it down somewhere into the 50s. A couple months back I saw that Alien Labs was dropping some new gear, and seeing the hypewave build I couldn’t help but get in on it, so I put in my online order at Catalyst Santa Ana and was fortunate enough to snag the very last jar. 

The surface of these fairly dense buds are a mix of lime, fern and forest greens with aubergine accents so dark they appear pitch black at points, coupled with dark amber and honey orange pistils wildly whipping their way through calyxes which appear as though heavily fortified by multiple battalions of tall white and egg cream colored triches. 

The nose out of the jar is a combination of sweet chalk, cream, and a grungy freshness all wrapped in this sort of general old wooden chest type of mustiness. Busting open a bud I get a sweet freshness with a gassy zing, approaching a near eucalyptus sensation in the nostrils, accompanied by a light fruitiness that’s hard to nail down as it’s obscured by those more powerful top notes. Breaking it down by hand my fingertips are left with a light sweet floral mint, whereas the grinds are an amalgam of sweet fruit and freshness, along with a savory gassy sting. It put the image in my mind of spraying some old school Binaca on an all-natural mango Mamba of some sort, the fruitiness is not cloyingly artificial, and plays well off of that mint-pine freshness. 

The dry pull on the joint comes off as an extremely light version of root beer candy. It has a certain sweetness, but it’s followed up with a dirty astringent quality that comes off near savory. The inhale from the bong was surprisingly nondescript given the nose, I even went so far as to reclean my bong and bowl on subsequent attempts to pick up on any subtleties, but a very light floral sweetness was the best I could come up with. On the joint I got a bit of musty dough on the inhale, whereas the exhale came with a hoppy gassy floral wrapped around a semi-grungy melon taste with a nice minty echo that lingered on the tongue, which over time settled into a general mentholated mustiness. The exhale on the bong had a gassy chalky sweetness followed up by a musty cream and peppery zing that gave off just a hint of that root beer candy on the finish. Cross checking the flavor on my Ghost Vapes MV1 at 170c there’s a slight cooling sensation on the way in with a strong pine which gets even stronger and more pronounced on exhale, leaving a pinesol like after taste lingering in my mouth for a good minute afterward. 

The headchange came on fast, and brought with it just a touch of uplifting energy at first, but that dissipated rather quickly.  Physically, I felt a slight pressure build up right between the eyes, as well as an ASMR like tingle in the cheeks that made its way down into the chest and gave me a sort of buoyant feeling. After a bit, a tired wave set in to the point where I felt it’d be a good idea to take a nap but it never quite put me all the way to sleep, however it took the wind out of my sails to the point I might have well have just knocked out as I wasn’t good for much else. Mentally I felt fairly cognizant until I tried to speak, at which point I found myself constantly stumbling over my words. In my head I could form a sentence and start the process to project it, but when it got to my mouth the words would get hung up on certain syllables, or I’d use the wrong ones entirely. I found myself having to focus a bit harder than normal on my pronunciation to avoid that lag. Even then, my vocabulary recall was shot and I had a hard time bringing forth words I wanted to use in the moment, settling for poor substitutes, and having to go back and correct myself when the word I was actually looking for manifested itself. This is definitely not a strain anyone should kick off their day with unless their day consists solely of kicking back and marathoning through The Tourist on HBO Max (it’s pretty good). 

All of that said, while I’m not chomping at the bit to get my hands on more, I could see myself picking this up again if I were in the market for day ender type herb, especially at the $60 price point that Alien Labs is going for nowadays. This was a beautiful, well grown batch with a long lasting motivation stealing thwack that’s perfect for relaxing after a hard day you’d rather forget. If that sounds appealing to you and you can find it at a rate you’re comfortable with I’d say you can’t go wrong. Great job once again Alien Labs, keep pumping out that heat!